As the 2007-08 college football season concluded earlier this week, heads now turn to the Senior Bowl and Shrine Bowl as college seniors prepare for the 2008 NFL Draft. A quick look over to the index of NFL rosters, there are a handful of teams in the NCAA who consistently recruit, develop and produce the type of athletes good enough to play in the league.
- The Elite Nine
The following are the elite nine (number of players in the league): Miami (50), Ohio State (48), Georgia (47), Florida State (44), Michigan (43), Tennessee (40), Notre Dame (39), Florida (38) and LSU (35). - More than 20% of all NFL rosters
The Elite Nine football programs account for 20% of the entire NFL roster. In the Elite Nine, affiliation includes four SEC teams, two Big Ten, two ACC and one Independent. - BCS Conference Supremacy
Taking a look and including every team from every BCS conference, the breakdown is predictably dominated by the SEC (313), followed by the Big Ten (280), ACC (281), Pacific Ten (220), Big 12 (208) and finally the Big East (107). The Big Ten was listed before the ACC because they have one fewer team in the conference and only one fewer player in the league. Advantage Big Ten. - The Weakest Links
The weakest conferences are clearly the Big 12 and the Big East. Even with fewer conference teams than the Big 12, the Big Ten and Pacific Ten have a decided advantage in NFL players. As for the eight team Big East, they send less than three players to the league for every one that Notre Dame sends. - Team & Conference Notes of Interest
Historic Big 12 superpowers Oklahoma and Nebraska both have fewer than 30 players in the NFL.The SEC’s big four (Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, LSU) have more players in the NFL (160) than the rest of the eight conference members combined (153).The Big 10 and Pacific 10 are the only conferences with every member sending double digit products to the NFL.
Duke, Connecticut, South Florida, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa State, Kentucky and Vanderbilt all have fewer than ten players each in the league.
- Completely Unacceptable
Navy has two players in the pros. Air Force has one. Army has zero. There is absolutely no excuse for the Irish to ever lose to Navy. Air Force and Army should remain off Notre Dame’s schedule…forever.
Note: To be clear, in no way am I trying to make or prove a point. The data contained within is for informative purposes only. Why did I pick 35 as the base number to be considered part of the elite? No particular reason other than it is a nice, round number and to help keep the number of teams in the elite below ten. And for full disclosure, there were five teams who barely missed the cut: Auburn (34), Texas (33), Southern Cal (31), Cal (30) and Penn State (30).
And finally, a piece of useless trivia encountered while conducting research. Brady Quinn is the only player in the NFL who shares the first letter of his last name with nobody.
Well that is the data and with very little opinion contributed. I encourage everybody to use the comments section so you can take the data and form your own opinions in a discussion with other fans.
By the way Texas has 44 active NFL players
This article is very excellent. I was reading it with pleasure. sincerely
Bob, how did you defeat phony judges if you are still disbarred?
RE: “2. if you had bothered to check previous posts or subsequent published opinions of the california supreme court, you would have found out that i defeated the crooks at the phony ca state bar court, before you republished the link to this article and committed libel per se.”
Yeah Bob,
Then why are you still disbarred to this day?
http://members.calbar.ca.gov/search/member_detail.aspx?x=70962
Gutless Wonders…HAHHAAHHAA Well lets see my tuition cost about 160k for 4 years and my season tix keep going up every year for the stadium tax. I have 4 tix and each tix is $62.00 apiece and the tix have been in my family for 23 years. I think I’ve paid them enough already. I love my ND but your beyond obsessed.
mikeS,
1. nothing went wrong with my personal, business, or professional life. what went wrong with yours, if you have any?
2. if you had bothered to check previous posts or subsequent published opinions of the california supreme court, you would have found out that i defeated the crooks at the phony ca state bar court, before you republished the link to this article and committed libel per se. the ca supreme court ruled that the judge referred to in the article you posted the link to was not a real judge at all and that none of his findings or any of the so called proceedings in the phony ca state bar court were admissible in and real civil or criminal court or entitled to any credibility whatsoever.
3. in addition, you would have found out that 2 crooked ca judges connected with those illegal proceedings and the article containing the fraudulent information, george trammel and anthony kline, ended up pleading guilty to federal felonies in the us district court in los angeles.
4. if any of that trash referred to in that article were true, i would have a criminal record. i have none at all. i would also have been sued over these matters in the civil courts. i never have been.
5. you are correct, i do not like pete carroll or urban meyer since they have engaged in fraudulent nd bashing in the recruiting wars.
6. what my friends and i have done, and still are doing, in exposing the dishonest tactics of pete carroll and urban meyer in the recruiting wars, certainly has shown up in the 2008 recruiting statistics at rivals.com and scout.com.
7. we have done things to help notre dame by exposing and attacking notre dame’s enemies.
8. what have you ever done for notre dame or notre dame football?
9. while we appreciate all of the flattery from whomever you may be hiding behind phony internet identities( sure fits with your gutless wonder images), you are not going to change what we have been doing, and will continue to do for notre dame and notre dame football and for all of the schools that play college football and college sports with honesty and integity.
10. since none of you gutless wonders have the courage to disclose your real names, for all we and for all anyone looking at your ridiculous posts know, you are just one person using multiple phony internet ids and providing aid and comfort to notre dame’s enemies.
GO IRISH!!!
bob gilleran
Don’t poke a stick into the freak’s cage. When you see the name and the numbered lists with no caps, just scroll down to the next “normal” post.
Don’t poke the a stick into the freak’s cage. When you see the name and the numbered lists with no caps, just scroll down to the next “normal” post.
Bob,
Why did it go so wrong?
http://www.calbar.ca.gov/calbar/…ct/97oct- 23.htm
Funny actually, Ace Ventura happens to be on right now.
First, I establish a motive, then I lose forty pounds, by PORKIN his wife!!!!
Also, why are all his posts about USC and Pete Carrol? He also seems to be in love with Urban Meijer as well.
BoB will call you guy’s ND enemies now. He actually stated I was in the USC mafia? WTF is the USC Mafia? LoL I can see him having a bottle of lotion out with a kleenex and Charlies pic by his bed side. You guys figure it out. I bet he is going to make “threats” now of a civil suit towards you. He mentions it just about every post he makes. Yikes!
Obsess much?
NO BRIAN!! FOR GODDSAKE, DON’T DO IT!! HE’LL EAT YOUR SOUL!! HE’LL EAT YOUR SOUL!!!!!!!!!!!!
Either that or his room is decorated like Ray Finkel’s!
Let’s try that one out…Bob Gilleran, Bob Gilleran, Bob Gilleran!
I can just see Bob now, sitting in his single room apartment, under a bare lightbulb swinging from the ceiling. His walls covered in pictures of Bob Davie and Pete Carroll – all with the eyes poked out. YIKES!
Is it true if you say Bob Gilleran’s name three times in a row, he appears and starts talking to you ad nauseum?
Get a life Bob!
Holy shit, Bob.
Bob, you’re back! Sweet! After the David Grimes CATCH, everyone was a little robert t. gilleran. Love the posts!:)
jeff,
1. having a residence in los angeles and a lot of very good friends who are members of the usc community, the vast majority of whom are fine, decent, and honest people, i can tell you that the vast majority of the members of the usc community want pete carroll and his staff gone from usc, knowing that the longer he stays at usc without usc taking action, the worse the ncaa sanctions are going to be for usc.
2. sure, everyone at usc enjoyed the turnaround in the usc football program after 20 years in the tank.
3. however, only a very small minority of people within the usc community were aware of the dishonest tactics being used by pete carroll and his staff to achieve that turnaround and, now that they know, they do not approve at all.
4. throughout this entire process, our best sources of information and evidence have been fine honest people within the usc community who were horrified by carroll’s tactics.
5. as for those rumours about pete carroll and the nfl, what nfl team would hire him now?
6.carroll already got fired twice by nfl teams- the ny jets and the new england patriots.
7. carroll has had success only when he was given freedom to cheat, as he was at usc. there is no team in the nfl which can provide him with such an opportunity.
8. it is just now a struggle within the usc community between the powerful few who still think that they can keep pete carroll around and get away without ncaa and other sanctions and the very many who want pete and his crew gone.
9. pete, like reggie bush, has pocketed a ton of money by using the usc football program for personal gain.
10. no doubt, they both think that the worst possible scenario will be that they walk away with those ill gotten gains.
11. well, they are incorrect. there will be large adverse economic consequences for both of them in the civil courts.
12. just as the window of opportunity for the ncaa to do what is correct is very small, the window of opportunity for the vast majority of fine honest people in the usc community to kick their trojan horses off their campus before outsiders do it is even smaller.
13. we wish our friends in the usc community the best.
14. we know the type of ruthless people they are up against.
15. the sooner they take the required action and get rid of pete carroll and his crew on their own, the sooner that the usc football program will be back playing and winning honestly.
16. over the last 30 years, the usc community has made a huge investment and turned usc from a local joke( the university for spoiled children) into a fine academic institution.
17. we simply do not believe that they are going to risk all of that progress by keeping pete carroll and his crew around.
18. we are immensely proud that notre dame, charlie weis and corwin brown and their staffs and every member of notre dame’s current, future, and past football teams chose the much tougher, but honest road to the turnaround of notre dame’s football program.
19. anyone who doubts that recruits have caught on to pete carroll and the severe dangers to which he and his crew have put the usc football program in need only check rivals.com and scout.com for the latest 2008 recruiting statistics.
20. for the 1st time since 2002, pete carroll and usc are nowhere near the top and there will be no last minute catching up. in fact, we are informed a number of earlier usc commits for 2008 are looking elsewhere and that alot of current usc players who said that they were not going to the nfl early or transferring have changed their minds and are getting out before the shit really hits the fan at the usc football program.
GO IRISH!!!
bob gilleran
jeff,
1. was there a quicker fix for notre dame football so that notre dame could have started winning nationl championships much sooner?
yes, notre dame could have cheated and lowered notre dame’s academic and character standards, like pete carroll at usc, dennis erickson at miami, and barry switzer at oklahoma( no disrespect to coach stoops of oklahoma who now runs an honest football program with integrity at oklahoma).
2. if notre dame had decided to take that quick fix route, notre dame could have had reggie bush and many others like him.
3. of course, if notre dame had chosen the quick fix, notre dame would now be implicated in the detailed evidence of cheating and dishonesty now set forth in don yeager’s new best selling book” Tarnished Heisman” about reggie bush’s dishonest activities while reggie bush was supposedly a real student athlete playing football at usc.
4. since yeager’s book is about reggie bush and not about the usc football program, the book does not contain much of the evidence about the role of pete carroll and certain people at usc in what reggie was able to pull of while he was at usc.
5. however, that does not mean that plenty of such evidence does not exist. just take a look under reggie bush investigation posted on the internet.
6. we all remember what the ncaa did when coach stoops at oklahoma did when he found out in 2006 that his starting qb and certain other key players had been getting improper financial benefits( nothing remotely close to what reggie bush got while at usc) from an oklahoma booster who owned a car dealership.
7. despite the fact that coach stoops and his staff and the admistration knew that doing so would kill oklahoma’s chances to play for a national championship. they followed the rules and reported the violations to the ncaa.
8. within a very short period of time, the ncaa socked oklahoma with very severe sanctions, including forfeiture of prior games in prior seasons in which the ineligle players had participated, forfeiture of a big 12 championship, repayment of large sums of money earned from those forfeited games, subtantial reductions in scholarships allowed, and many other severe sanctions.
9. the ncaa grounds for these actions were not that coach stoops or anyone on his staff knew about the violations earlier and did not report them. the grounds were that coach stoops and his staff should have known sooner if they has exercised the proper insitutional supervision required by ncaa rules.
10. what were pete carroll and his staff doing at the usc football program while reggie bush was pulling off his scam as the best paid so called student athlete in college football?
11. pete carroll and his staff were allowing the characters mentioned in yaeger’s book and many other shady characters to hang out in the usc locker room before and after games and on the sidelines.
12. why has the ncaa done nothing to usc so far? well, we gathered the informnation, documents, and evidence to find out why.
13. like many other organizations which operate behind closed doors, there are corrupt people at the ncaa.
14. the ncaa enforcement department hires attorneys and investigators. they do not pay very much and there is not much room for career
advancement within the ncaa.
15.well, it was not long before some enterprising and dishonest ncaa attorneys and investigators found a way to make tons of money. they set up boutique law firms specializing in advising schools with ncaa problems.
15. for very large fees, these firms will do their own private investigation of any school’s ncaa violations and produce a report and recommended sanctions, always minimal, if there are any.
16. when such reports from these firms show up at the ncaa, the ncaa enforcement personnel have crucial career decisions to make. if they go along with the very light or no sanctions recommendations, they have a good shot at being hired by one of these boutique law firms or of ending up with high paying enforcement jobs at the schools and conferences that want to play that dishonest game.
17. if the ncaa enforcement personnel do not go along with this corrupt system, they can quit and go elsewhere, as one of my cousins did, in disgust.
18. by process of elimination, is there any other possible reason why the ncaa has not come down on usc and other schools that cheat and get away with it regularly? NO
19. so,like solving the crooked ref and officiating problems, the only correct course of conduct will probably have to be shoved down the throats of the ncaa and the conferences, either in the civil courts or when someone like don yeager publishes a book about the corruption within the ncaa and the conferences and the football factories. we understand that quite a few such books are very close to being ready for publication and not by the national enquirer
20. of course, having seen the results of the yahoo sports investigation of reggie push and the usc football program and don yaeger’s best selling book, certain people at the ncaa, the conferences, and at the schools that have been cheating may decide to save their own economic hides and become witnesses, instead of defendants in civil actions, as quite a few already have.
21. the ncaa’s window of opportunity is very short now.
22. after all, every bit information and evidence that we have collected is also available to anyone who wants to look for it and we do cooperate with the honest media.
23. we already know the outcomes. it is just a question of who elects to be an honest witness and who thinks that they can continue to get away with this dishonesty and elects to be featured in the next best selling book and to be a defendant in the civil courts.
24. with charlie and corwin and their staffs and the university of notre dame and all of the schools and coaches who play college sports with integrity having done all that they can do, we, who have no connection with notre dame or any of notre dame’s coaches or with any of the other schools and coaches who play college football and sports with integrity, are certainly going to make certain than, in the future, every legitmate student athlete playing college football or any other college sport plays on level playing fields with the officiating done by honest refs and tech review personnel.
25. it is certainly no mere accident that those weapons of economic violence which we have used, with such success, and perfected in the civil courts to root out dishonesty in the business and legal have turned out to be the perfect weapons to root dishonesty and corruption out of college football and college sports.
just a little more background on your nd/nfl stats,
bob gilleran
jeff,
1.another factor behind those nd/nfl stats is the help that former notre football players who were ignored by the nfl have been getting from charlie and corwin and their staffs and from those notre dame alums with nfl success and contacts who stepped foward to save notre dame football after the disgraceful tyrone foring episide.
2. while there have been many former nd players who were ignored by the nfl poppping up on nfl rosters this season, we are giving ryan grant, now of green bay, a special cheer this week.
3. ryan was ignored by the nfl after being bashed for being too slow, not tough enough, and certainly not athletic enough to play in the nfl by the pundits at the espn.com and other media sources.
4. well, ryan worked hard and never gave up. as an afterthought, but with some help from charlie and corwin and those nd alums who stepped foward to save nd football after the tyrone firing disaster, ryan got his chance at green bay this season.
5. and, wow, did ryan take advantage of that chance. yesterday, after a tough start since the seattle staff had obviously foucued on ways to strip the ball from ryan and succeeded twice early in the game, ryan made the adjustments, ran for 201 yards and 3tds, both close to nfl and green bay playoff records( making reggie bush look like the dud that he is).
6. any student athlete who chooses notre dame now will get his best shoot at the nfl from charlie and corwin and their staffs and a lot of help in the nfl after notre dame from that very large notre dame family.
7. there is no school, other than notre dame, which does what the notre dame family does for student athletes both while they are at notre dame and after they have graduated with a fine notre dame education.
8. when any student athlete chooses notre dame, they become part of a family which lasts for their lives.
9. with other notre dame sports, the same things will happen soon, but not as quickly only because the working base is not as large yet.
this is just a little more background information on your nd/nfl stats,
bob gilleran
jeff,
1. the statistics are a just a snapshot.
2. what makes notre dame’s nfl numbers even more impressive is that they do not take into account the large seams in notre dame recruiting and player development starting from the end of the holtz era, when lou and his wife were ill, and lazy bob davie took over recruiting and sat in his office in south bend admiring himself in the mirror while the notre dame recruiting network died on the vine.
3. sure, the death was not sudden, but there were sure none of those quality time visits to high school coaching staffs all over the us which have become the hallmark of the charlie weis, and corwin brown era.
4. we are among those who do not blame tyrone at all for the relative lack of depth and talent in notre dame’s 2004 and 2005 recruiting classes( there certainly are notable exceptions) and in the classes of the bob davie era.
5. after all, the people at notre dame who hired tyrone neglected to tell him that lazy bob davie had killed off the notre dame recruiting network before tyrone even arrived.
6. tyrone was just another victim of lazy bob davie and, long before that atrocious firing episode, tyrone realized that, without the notre dame and nfl connections that charlie has, tyrone could never bring the notre dame recruiting network back to life and was willing to resign in a dignified civilized manner before certain people at the old sbt and at certain so called notre dame fan sites insisted on that atrocious firing, which did notre dame even more damage on the recruiting trail.
7. certain people at the usc football program and ivan maisel and some of his fellow usc and nd bashing pimps at the espn.com were just jumping for joy. after all, they had set oout to destroy notre dame football and they were getting help from within the notre dame community.
8. after the atrocious manner in which tyrone was treated by people supposedly within the notre dame community, should any of us be surprised that many recruits and high school coaches no longer trusted notre dame?
8. fortunately, there were still enough echoes out there to attract notre dame’s fine 2003 recruiting class to south bend only because because of that player driven( shane walton( remember, shane came over from the soccer team( he was not recruited to play football) and others) 2002 notre dame season.
9. after the horrible fallout from the manner in which tyrone was treated( not even tyrone had any doubt that he would have to leave notre dame for notre dame football to survive.
10.however, the difference between a civilized dignified resignation( tyrone already had the washington offer in hand) and the atrocious firing was devasting for notre dame football.
11. until many former notre dame football players who also had success in the nfl, including, but, by no means, limited to joe montana, the notre dame administration was seriously considering dropping notre dame football, as we know it.
12. it was those people who stepped foward with the knowledge and the resources to save notre dame football and to make all future decisions about notre dame football who did the recruiting search and came up with charlie weis, who was not the only candidate.
13. with great talent at many positions, not much at others, and zero depth of talent, charlie and his staff and every member of notre dame’s 2005 and 2006 teams produced those 2 fine bcs seasons which, given the talent and depth of talent gaps, were nothing short of miraculous.
14. in the meantime, charlie and his staff, with the use of notre dame own airline of private planes, provided by certain notre dame alums, set out to recreate the notre dame recruiting network all over the us.
15. charlie and his staff did extremely well in 2006 and 2007. however, it was not until corwin brown joined the staff and charlie and the rest of his staff really understood how vicious the college football recruiting wars were that charlie and corwin and their staffs started to be able to hut recruiting grand slams such as notre dame’s 2008 and future recruiting classes.
16. charlie and corwin and their staffs, in addition to bringing the notre dame recruiting network back from the dead, also reinvented college football recruiting for the 21st century.
17. that is why, much to the dismay of notre dame’s enemies, notre dame’s 2008 commits have stuck with notre dame through a very ugly 2007 season on the field, which was unavoidable because of those many recruiting seam years.
18. for the future of notre dame football, anyone just has to look at the performance of the new england patriots this season, with a qb and offensive system developed by charlie weis and a defensive system in which corwin brown played and learned well enough to coach that defensive system and develop players extremely well in the nfl.
19. when notre dame’s recruiting class arrives in south bend this summer to take a few real academic courses, to develop that team chemistry essential to being in the national championship hunt every season, and to put in the time and effort notre with the best strength and conditioning staff and facilities in the us, notre dame football will have talent and depth of talent at every position which notre dame has not had since the lou holtz era.
20. because we have taken the time to learn a great deal about college football and recruiting and the ref and tech review systems for both business and personal reasons and because, by a quirk of fate, we happen to know a number of notre dame’s 2008 commits and their families and high school coaches and we see the fraudulent nd bashing information and misrepresentations from the football factories that is constantly being thrown at them from so many directions , we can now appreciate what charlie and corwin and their staffs have done in the recruiting wars and for notre dame football.
21. we realize that many others will not appreciate what they have accomplished until they see the results on the field and we understand that.
22. will those results be achieved overnight? that is unlikely since notre dame is not a football factory with full time football players, who have no real academic obligations and the benefits of a real college education like usc, florida, florida state, michigan and lsu and the other football factories and since ncaa rules restrict the amount of time that charlie and corwin and their staffs can spend with their student athletes.
23. in addition, the jump from high school to college football requires even more adjustments and experience than does the jumpf from college to the nfl, especially when you are not a full time football player, but a real student athlete.
24. however, with talent and depth of talent at every position, come the ability to hold those joe moore type of hard hitting practices, before the 2008 and future seasons and before every game, which made those lou holtz teams so great and to absorb a certain of injuries that are a necessary risk in those hard hitting practices.
25. we would not be surprised to see the results on the field much sooner than most people think right now.
26. when you revisit those nfl/nd statictics several years from now, you will find notre dame on top on a regular basis.
27. in addition, for those student athletes who choose notre dame over the football factories and do not make the nfl, you will find every one of them leading successfull and exemplary lives in business and in life since every student athlete who chooses notre dame and does not fall for the pitches of the coaches from the football factories.
we thank for for the current nd/nfl stats and we know that they will get even better in the near future,
bob gilleran